get up, it’s not over

Wrote Monday on Mark 5 and the healing of Jairus’ daughter and the sick woman. Something else cool happened towards the end of the text.

Jesus arrives at Jairus’ house to find tears and wailing because the girl has died. Jesus asks why their crying because she’s not dead but asleep. They laugh at him. (How often do we feel God give us truth and we simply laugh because it seems so impossible?)

Jesus takes the girl’s family and his disciples into the house and he tells the girl to get up. Immediately, she gets up and walks around. Everyone is astonished.

What situations appear to be dead in your life?

A relationship with a spouse. A church. Friendship. Family relationships.

Have you given up? Are you wailing and crying because it’s over? Or are you chasing down Jesus to bring him into the situation and see what he can do?

Because Jesus might walk right into your situation and say, “Get up. It’s not over. I do my best work in places that appear dead and lifeless.”

Some have given up on the local church as a relevant body in our day. But I sit here following my first month as a United Methodist pastor, more convinced than ever that our cities need the local church. They just don’t know it yet. And a lot of our churches don’t know it either.